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I haven’t been here in awhile because every time I’ve had a creative writing moment, I’ve poured it into my latest novel. There are only so many writing minutes in a day, after all, and I have to use them wisely!

So there has been no time for blogging or other writing projects! It’s been full on, primary novel writing, which is a good thing, right? *round of applause*

But recently I hit that novel writing milestone of leaping from the beginning portion (part 1) and entering that middle portion (part 2) which I personally find to be the most challenging, most tedious, most annoying part of the entire process. (As I have detailed in prior blog posts: here and here).

So of course now I’m more susceptible to procrastination. I’m quite eager to be diverted, to chase after things that are shiny! (Hello, Internet! Isn’t that what the Internet is for?)

This leads me to my current, strange-yet-eerily-familiar predicament of using writing to avoid writing.

Oh, my poor writing brain!

Overloaded by bothersome novel writing chores such as hashing out necessary plot details and confirming character consistency, I’ve suddenly found myself wanting to start a different story…something with pizzazz, something with some high energy to it…

Beginnings of stories are always fun! Full of discovery! (Who are these people? OMG What’s happening to them? What world is this? Where am I?)

Indeed, I have a drawer/computer file full of beginnings! My writing Achilles Heel is writing novel beginnings. I have many, many novels I’ve started that, alas, fizzled out because they just did not have the substance to keep going.

Crafting novel beginnings is my version of ‘something shiny’.

However…it can be tricky at times to know where to invest one’s creative energy. Sometimes that energetic juice is right on the money! It feels, with this new stuff, like I am really onto something!

So I have to ask myself: is this an avoidance of the writing grind or an alternative to the writing grind? Perhaps this second project is something that will sustain me through the dry spells!

Writing, after all, tends not to be linear.

I can hop back and forth, can’t I? It won’t take me twice as long to finish both, will it? I can indulge in this little detour, right? It will still take me to the same place, won’t it?

Arg! Writing decisions! What do I do? Just write, I know. But write what? WHICH ONE?

the gratified sense of connection, when something you wrote resonated with another human being

Okay, now here’s the curse.

Writing will never EVER leave you.

This might sound like it’s a blessing.

Great! you think. I’m a writer and writing will never leave me! I’ll always have that creative energy to tap into. I’ll always have words, even if I have to dig them out with my bare hands…

But there’s another way to look at this:

Writing will *never* *EVER* leave you.

When you are NOT writing, it is going to hover over your shoulder until you PAY ATTENTION TO IT.

Like a cat, it will sit on the book your are currently reading, on your laptop while you do work, on your jacket when you need it to rush out the door.

Your writing will never EVER leave you and it wants you to know that.

When you are NOT writing, your writing will send you texts in your mind, like ‘miss u’ and ‘why did u leave me :(‘ and ‘i am here 4 u’ and ‘i am here’ and ‘i am here’ and ‘i am here’.

Just so you don’t forgot!

Like you could forget. Because whatever story you are working on, it’s already a part of you, like you already lived it, like you knew the characters in another life, like all it needs is your writing breath to animate it…

The curse of being a writer is to never know an ‘off switch’. Not even in sleep!

To be a writer means even when you are technically NOT writing you ARE still writing.

There is no ‘not writing’. The state of ‘not writing’ is a myth you tell yourself when you are ‘too busy’ or ‘too consumed by other stuff’ to put pen to paper.

The truth of the matter is that WRITING WILL NEVER EVER LEAVE YOU…even if maybe you want it to for awhile.

But no. It won’t go! It will haunt you until you finally sit down and give it the attention it craves.

Bio

I am a mom, a teacher and a writer. I just completed my Regency mystery & I'm working on the next one! I also create and publish interactive iBooks for kids! Find out more about me at http://about.me/juliejohnson!